


Through the Mirror of Another

by kiapurity



Series: HS AU [1]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: F/M, Sam the Researcher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2020-10-10 09:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20525696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiapurity/pseuds/kiapurity
Summary: A High School AU series featuring the cast of Devil May Cry characters. More things change, more things stay the same.--- SERIES CURRENTLY ON HIATUS ---





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This AU would not leave me alone while in middle of working on Fortuna's Fool chapter 6 and Teen Nero and Tiny Terrors ... I need help.

She was a little nervous, standing in front of the classroom ready to introduce herself. The brunette wasn’t sure what to expect from this school when her father decided to put in a transfer upon learning his favorite celebrity was living in Red Grave. Her mother said that it was okay to humor him in this case as she hadn’t seen him this excited in years.

But did it have to be at the expense of leaving everything she knew behind? Going to a new school without her best friends and having to start all over again just because of her father’s weird fixation on some Beethoven look-alike…

The teacher of indeterminable gender sighed loudly at the new student, interrupting her thoughts. She immediately snapped to attention and announced her name before being sent to an empty desk next to a girl her own age. She had her long black hair pulled back in a tidy bun and wore thick spectacles.

Mary couldn’t help but feel as though as the girl was wearing some kind of disguise? She couldn’t quite figure out why she had that impression. However, her notebook was open and from what Mary could see, it was full of detailed notes. Must be a diligent student, she thought.

“Alright, everyone.” The teacher sighed. “Please open your books to page…”

Mary only hoped she could catch up with the class as she realized that she didn’t get a book for this particular subject and groaned quietly. The girl next to her tapped her shoulder and whispered quietly.

“You can read with me. My name is Aikaterine Fortune.” 

“Nice to meet you…”

Well. Was this going to be a new friend? Maybe she would find out as the day went on. At least this girl was polite enough to help her out. Mary would have to get her act together if she was going to survive the new school. At least she was prepared for lunch, that much she could be thankful for.

“I’ll figure out a quiz to cover this chapter next week. Make sure you’re ready.” The teacher frowned, staring at an empty desk then glanced over to a white haired teenager who groaned quietly.

“Who’s that guy?”

“The class president.” She answered without glancing up. “I’m the vice president.”

“Really. Huh. It’s awfully nice of you to help me out.”

“Like you, I’m not from here.”

“Oh, where are you from, then?”

“An island kind of … over there. Fortuna.”

Mary noticed that Aikaterine sounded a little strained when she spoke of her home. It wasn’t probably the right time to ask for more details. She was writing in her notebook as rapidly as she could.

“Sorry. I’ll explain at lunch. Have to focus.”

Thankfully, lunch came after going through several teachers, giving Mary a chance to get to know her classmates better. She pulled out her sandwich her mom packed for her along with some surprise homemade cookies.

Aikaterine pulled out an elaborately packed lunch as Mary looked over in surprise. Aikaterine nervously explained that Nanny had been teaching her how to prepare her own lunch. It was a long and a very weird story.

“Do tell!”

“Where to start… I’m somewhat living here on my own in an apartment paid by my uncle. Nanny convinced him that I needed some experience outside of Fortuna to better my future prospects.”

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

“Right. What’s your story?”

“Dad’s always had this fixation on some celebrity and once he found out that this guy lived in Red Grave, he put in a job transfer and got me and my mom moved here. We love him but he’s a little weird about this celebrity.”

“...Sparda?” Aikaterine stated flatly as Mary nodded in response. “I shouldn’t even be surprised. His sons have it worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“The reason why I became the class vice president is pretty stupid. I’m the only girl who didn’t fall for this bullshit and that’s why the class president picked me.”

Mary stared at Aikaterine in confusion. “Wait, he picked you? I thought the class had to vote on that?”

“The guys in the class were either torn between wanting to be him and hating him. They agreed with his choice immediately.” She took her glasses off for a brief moment to wipe the dirt off before returning them to her face.

“How come you don’t call the class president by his name?”

“Too personal. I prefer to keep a well maintained distance.”

“Heeeeey, ladies!”

Mary and Aikaterine turned their heads towards the newcomer who had long white hair. His bangs were barely covering his blue eyes as he stuck a pinky finger in his ear, scratching it.

“Guess I missed the first few classes, huh. That’s what I get for sleeping in.”

“DELINQUENT!” Aikaterine got into his face, angrily. “Do you not care about education?!”

“Chill, at least I’m here now. Oh, hey, who’s this?”

“Um, didn’t I already introduce myself…?” Mary said, sounding confused.

This guy looked awfully a lot like the class president but while the class president was more neat and formal with his hair slicked back and wearing thin glasses. It suddenly dawned on Mary that this was a case of twins with opposite personalities. This wasn’t something she needed to deal with on top of everything going on right now.

“Okay, then, I’ll just call you Lady.”

“Are you that bloody stupid, Dante.” Aikaterine threw a notebook at him. “Mary has a name!”

“Um… I don’t mind being called that…”

“Oh no, not you too.”

Mary shook her head for a second, what the heck. Was this what Aikaterine was talking about? There was something disarmingly charming about this Dante and she didn’t understand why. Maybe her father’s fixation was starting to make sense to her.

The lunch hour was starting to wind down as students were slowly milling back into the room in which the Class President finally showed up, expressing his annoyance at his twin.

“I see you finally made it to school.”

“You could have woken me up, Verge.”

“You have four alarm clocks for a reason. I’m not your keeper.”

“I never asked you to be. Just wake me up once in a while, c’mon.”

Aikaterine rolled her eyes. “It’s your own fault. I live by myself and can get myself up early enough for school.”

“Late night.” Dante shrugged. “I can’t find your mystery woman, Verge. Whoever she was, she disappeared quickly.”

And out of nowhere, Aikaterine suddenly grabbed Dante by his waist and suplexed him on the spot. Mary was left in stunned silence at how effortlessly the vice president was able to lift someone taller (and heavier!) than her. The whole classroom went quiet with sheer horror but the class president had bigger problems on his mind.

He had not expected to catch a view of the vice president’s red lacy underwear. That image was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. His face was almost a near match for the color in question before burying his face in his hand.

“Was it necessary to do that, Aikaterine?”

Dante rolled over, stunned from the floor becoming best friends with his head. He wasn’t quite out cold but he was going to need a goddamn painkiller for this massive headache.

“It was on impulse. If you’ll excuse me.”

And that was when Mary finally noticed that weird tension in the air between the two of them. Oddly enough, it explained why they sat on opposite sides of the classroom trying to keep a distance from each other. She was pretty sure there was a highly specific term for whatever this thing was but it wasn’t coming to her mind.

Mary looked down at Dante who was still curled up on the floor, rubbing his head. “Are you okay?”

“Nothing a good painkiller can’t fix. Didn’t expect that suplex.”

“From the look of things, no one did.” 

Aikaterine had purposefully stalked across the classroom to get back to her desk. Mary felt bad about the suplex and opted to help Dante off of the floor since his twin was clearly wasn’t in the mood to do so considering he had returned to his desk.

“Thanks.” Dante rubbed his head. “Kitty Kat can be pretty rough-- ow.”

Another notebook flew across the room and smacked Dante squarely on the side of his head. Mary picked up both notebooks off of the floor, shaking her head.

“I’ll get these back to her. Why do you call her that?”

“Because her name is a mouthful! She gets angry if other people give her nicknames, saying that she would only allow certain people to have the honor or whatever.”

“I’m sure she has her reasons.” Mary turned around and went back to her desk, returning the notebooks to Aikaterine.

Rest of the day was rather uneventful with everyone focusing on schoolwork and taking bets on how many times their homeroom teacher would imbibe from their flask. The teacher could only sigh at the weird atmosphere in the classroom before the bell declared school was out for the day.

Aikaterine was gathering up her belongings as Mary approached. “Mind showing me around the city?”

“Sure. I’ll try my best.”

“You’re on!”

After a lengthy tour in which Aikaterine pointed out all the best places to shop for best bargains because she had to work with a monthly budgeting. She admitted that it was a little stressful the first month she was living in the city.

“A monthly budget? Your uncle is awfully strict.”

“You have no idea.” She stated flatly. “While he is rich, he doesn't want me to be a spoiled princess.”

“I only get a small allowance every two weeks but it’s more for eating out with friends rather than shopping. I’ll probably have to try some of your ideas. How much do you get monthly?”

After Aikaterine explained the amount, Mary looked surprised. “That’s a little more significant than I thought.”

“Have to do some strict savings just in case if I need the extra money in case of emergency. Though sometimes if I can spare it, I donate some of it to the orphanage here since I haven’t been able to figure out how to send it to Fortuna’s orphanage in private.”

“You’re like some kind of saint.”

“I try to do what I can.” Aikaterine sighed. “I am privileged to at least have a relative who can take me in. The stigma is rather harsh back home.”

The two stopped by a small cafe in which they were able to grab a table and order milkshakes. Aikaterine was about to suggest she would pay but Mary protested saying that it was only fair that she pay for hers.

“Stigma?” Mary asked, resuming the conversation after they got their milkshake orders.

“Single mothers lack support and they end up abandoning their children.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Not much can be done about it, the town is on an island kind of cut off from the world and it’s a very religious town. Women have to be saintly and preserve their maiden virtues. While there’s no consequences for men who sleep around.” She scoffed.

“What religion is this if they can do something like that?” Mary asked.

“Would you believe me that it’s a Sparda cult?”

“What. How are you even immune to the twins?”

“I don’t give a crap about religion. Makes me sleepy. Of course uncle wasn’t amused when I kept sleeping during church services and told me to stay home from now on so I wouldn’t ruin his image. So, yeah, they don’t really impress me too much.”

Speaking of which, a gaggle of girls came up to their table, surprising both of them. Well, at least Mary was surprised while Aikaterine only managed an annoyed look on her face with a “not again” muttered under her breath.

“Vice President! Vice President! Can you give our letters to the President?”

“Do it yourselves. I have little interest in doing the work of cowards who aren’t even honest with their feelings.”

With that cold statement dished out, the group suddenly slid away from the table and out of sight. Mary turned her head to Aikaterine who was stabbing at her milkshake with the straw.

“I am not some kind of glorified secretary! They can do the work themselves!”

“Speaking of not being honest about feelings.” Mary said. “You sound especially offended.”

“If I am, it’s because I have to deal with those groupies. They’re too scared to approach him and I’m the only one who will speak to him on even terms.”

“That’s not what I mean. Do you have any… feelings?”

“I’m feeling annoyed with him for being handsome.”

Not quite the answer she expected. It was hard to get a clear read on Aikaterine what with the thick glasses she was wearing.

“Even if I felt anything for that idiot, there’s no point in it. He doesn’t like dealing with giggling fools and I’m not allowed to have a boyfriend. I can’t even have a guy over at my apartment either without adult supervision.”

“What do you mean? No boyfriend?”

“My uncle is planning to marry me off as soon as I turn eighteen.”

“That’s stupid! When you’re eighteen, you’re legally an adult and you can do whatever you want!” Mary almost shouted but kept her voice quiet. “I mean, that kind of thing is so old fashioned.”

“Fortuna.” Aikaterine shrugged. “I want to agree with you but at this point in time, my hands are tied. The money I have isn’t my own and I’m trying to survive right now. I have to go along with what he says or I’ll be dragged back home and locked up until I’m eighteen. As it is right now, that’s about three years or less to go.”

“I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn.”

“It’s fine, your concern is warranted. In fact, I think you’re the first person who I ever told about my situation. Nanny has been looking into alternative plans for me to get away but right now, playing it safe is important at the cost of any temporary happiness.”

\--

With that awkward conversation done at the cafe, the two were walking to Mary’s home. They were chattering about their school assignment for tomorrow and had exchanged phone numbers before stopping at the front door which opened abruptly in front of them.

There was a strange tall man with a scarred face staring at the two girls. There was a flicker of disappointment on his face before it gave away to a strange smile.

“Welcome home, Mary! How was your first day of school?”

“Just fine, dad. This is Aikaterine Fortune, the class vice president. She's been helping me out all day.”

Aikaterine stared at the man. There was something unsettling about him and at that very moment, she suddenly wished she had a shotgun. Though she didn’t understand why but it was a quick flash of dread as if she was standing before a gulfing chasm of evil lurking in the depths. Or she just really hated jesters.

“Nice to meet you.”

“I hope you’ll be a good model for our precious Mary!”

“I uh, I’ll try.”

Aikaterine backed away slowly before waving and beating a hasty retreat. Mary turned around to her dad and sighed loudly, scolding him for being too excited and scaring her friend like that.

“I’m so sorry, little lady. I was just hoping that you would have brought a Sparda boy back home with you… maybe I was expecting too much.”

“DAD. Really!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes things doesn't go as planned.

Agony.

Vergil had broken another pencil trying to focus on his homework. The red lace was haunting him as he slammed his head into the textbook out of frustration, waking his lazy twin up.

“What.” Dante yawned. “Is the matter, Verge?”

“Nothing. How are you recovering from your headache?”

“I’m fine now. Didn’t know *your* vice president even had the strength to suplex me. I guess you choose well.”

Vergil was making dying noises, trying to bury his head in his hands. The younger twin only shot him a weird glance before a light bulb turned on his head. He suspected that there may have been a form of wardrobe malfunction but didn’t want to aggravate his brother out of respect considering the piles of broken pencils around the desk.

“I guess we should go shopping for new pencils if you’re having that much trouble. And find a way to clear your mind.”

“I seem to have made a mess.” Vergil spoke quietly, realizing how many pencils he had broken in the process.

Dante got off the bed and started cleaning up the mess. Didn’t ever remember a time when his cooly composed twin was easily thrown off guard but he was pretty sure it all started because of a mysterious photograph in a store window. The picture was of a stunning woman with long curly black hair and red lips wearing a long flowing red dress that teased at her curves. The shop owner had noticed the boys staring at the picture and teased them.

“Rose Red is quite captivating isn’t she? She’s my favorite photography subject. Oh, by the way, if you want a formal picture? Here’s my card!”

The fast talking shop owner gave Dante the card and waved them off. Dante was walking for a few minutes before realizing that he left his twin stuck at the shop. He practically had to put Vergil in a headlock to get him moving again.

Last night, Dante was snooping around and thought he saw the mysterious Rose Red working in a soup kitchen. Figured he could try to find out who she was just to get his twin to stop spacing out because it was already embarrassing enough that whenever Vergil was doing the yard work, he would just sit outside for hours before their mom had to send Dante outside to drag him back inside.

The soup kitchen investigation had ended in failure because Rose Red vanished by the time Dante got closer in an attempt to ask about volunteering. He didn’t understand how two different women could completely break his brother like that. The Sparda Family Brain Cell ™ was spinning its gear slowly before Dante put two and two together. The answer was still coming out in the form of a pizza.

“Okay, maybe some pizza will help too?”

Vergil answered his twin with another head slam into the textbook.

\--

The pair were now sitting at a pizza joint, Dante was enjoying a slice while Vergil just stared at the ceiling tile counting the dots under his breath.

“I didn’t think you needed twenty boxes of pencils. You just about cleaned the store out of their stock!”

“I’m just going to keep breaking them at this rate.”

“Maybe you should just talk to Kitty Kat about that.”

“Stop calling her that.”

“Or what, am I going to accidentally summon her?”

“She does have a name, you know.” He said with a scowl plastered on his face.

“Real talk, Verge. How do you feel about Aikaterine?”

“Last month I confessed my feelings to her and I think she turned me down.”

“What did you say?”

“I told her that I tolerate her existence.”

Dante stared at his twin in disbelief and facepalmed so hard that it could be heard across Red Grave. There was a quiet “why is my brother such a dumbass” before he dropped his hand to the pizza, grabbing another slice.

“You are so clueless with women.”

“I guess I should not have been so surprised considering she’s largely unaffected by our family name’s allure.”

“Also, what made you think she actually rejected you?” Dante asked.

“She said “Thanks?” …”

“That’s not so much a rejection as she thought you were being a bloody dumbass.”

Vergil seemed to consider this. “Maybe you’re right, she didn’t really reject me after all. She still shows up at kendo practice just to remind me to hydrate myself.”

“Yep. You two have some kind of bizarre magnetism going on and you both don’t even want to acknowledge it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The pencils, bro.”

“That was because I … saw something I shouldn’t have. Her dignity was exposed.” His face turned furiously red again as he grabbed his soda, trying to drink away his embarrassment.

“Oh.”

The two sat in silence, finishing up their pizza. Dante just didn’t have any good advice for his brother as neither of them had much experience in dealing with girls their own age. It was bad enough that they had to deal with groupies who were more interested in them for their looks rather than who they were.

Sometimes it was really a curse being Sparda’s son. Their father was evasive about what type of demon he was and without that information, the twins were forced to navigate puberty in awkward ways. Their first year in high school, they had to avoid participating in sports-related activities because they weren’t sure about their strength compared to their human peers. Didn’t want to risk discovery through unintentional injury because lack of control.

Their second year, they were tentatively exploring more sports-related activities, having a better sense of their abilities. Though, Vergil incidentally did overestimate his own limits, having passed out at kendo practice from dehydration and it was Aikaterine who saved his butt, scolding him for being reckless.

Dante had made their father briefly panic the other day, having asked if they were supposed to be some sort of incubus considering the unwanted attention from girls at school. They weren’t able to get an answer as Sparda wound up hiding in the front yard in the tree, boldly refusing to come down in spite of Eva pleading with her husband. Vergil only stared in disgust saying that he wasn’t in the mood for this foolish line of thinking.

\--

The next day at school, Sam the Rese-- Teacher declared that they were going to go over a special set of biology lessons and started handing out parental consent forms. The entire class had looked over the form and groaned loudly.

“Don’t groan at me!” Sam snapped. “We’re going to have some proper sex education in this class. There will be no surprise babies!” The flask slammed on the podium, startling the entire classroom.

“Is it me or is the teacher stressed out more than usual?” Mary whispered to Aikaterine who only nodded back slowly.

“Actually, you know what?” The teacher sipped from their flask. “After this ESSENTIAL unit, I am going to pair people off in this classroom to take care of a robot baby and their grade will be critical on how well they take care of the baby.”

Then as an aside, Sam pointed the flask at Dante. “YOU WILL NOT FEED THE ROBOT BABY PIZZA.”

“Damn.” Dante whispered.

“...I wonder what prompted this.” One student whispered.

Aikaterine was not sure she was going to like this lesson at all but she will endure it, she thought to herself as she sighed out loud. “Mary, I won’t be able to hang out with you today. I’ve got student council after school, sorry.”

“That’s okay! Did my dad freak you out yesterday? I’m sorry, he’s been excitable lately.”

Aikaterine had a brief thought of stealing Sam’s flask. She banished that thought immediately and just shook her head in response. Thankfully, Nanny had found the shotgun and was wondering why Aikaterine was asking for it. There was muttered complaints of “jesters everywhere” before Aikaterine hid herself in the closet for the night.

“It’s… fine.”

\--

Mary was glad that she didn’t freak out her new friend too much considering she didn’t have a chance to befriend anyone. However, she had a chance to scope out the gossip among the students who were barely paying attention to her. The topics were so wild that she didn’t know which one were true or just outright made up.

“Every time I go near the teacher’s desk, the cheese wheel hisses at me!”

“I’m convinced the class president and vice president are secretly having a hot fling. Did you see how weird they act around each other?”

“I think our teacher is an alcoholic… have you noticed how the teacher is always drinking from the flask?” -- “The teacher does that even when we’re looking!”

“I wish I could date one of the twins…” -- “Have you tried confessing to them?” -- “No. I did hear a group annoyed the class vice president the other day.” -- “I feel bad for her, having to deal with that.”

“I heard that the famous model, Rose Red is a student at this school!” -- “You’re kidding me. I would think I’d have noticed someone that pretty.”

“I heard a student’s father is an evil jester.”

Mary had a weird look on her face at the last rumor. Who the hell would believe that last one? Such wild stories going on here. However, one of the rumors did make her pause:

“I’m convinced the twins are actually demons! Something is off about them.” -- “Besides their white hair?” -- “Well… yes. Have you noticed how people act weird around them?”

Huh. Mary thought to herself. Nah, there couldn’t be truth in that. There was no such thing as demons, after all. Dante clapped a hand on her shoulder, interrupting her thoughts.

“Crowd-watching?”

“Sort of. Hello, Dante.”

“Hey. Noticed Kitty Kat isn’t with you.”

Dante quickly looked around for a notebook and seemed almost disappointed when one didn’t hit him. Mary shook her head at him.

“She said she had student council meeting.”

“Right. Want to join me? I’ve got theatre club today.”

“Really? Theatre?”

“Yeah. Acting was a thing I had been considering for some time. Don’t you think I’ve got the looks for it?”

Mary scrutinized Dante’s face and made an “ehhh” sound while waving her palm. “Maybe.”

“Ah! You wound me!” Dante feigned a swoon. “My heart!”

“Now, you’re just over-acting.” She laughed. “And your heart? I hear that you’re a heartbreaker.”

He stopped still for a moment, considering her words. There seemed to be a sense of seriousness in the air. “...me? Nah.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve never been in a relationship.” He let out a sigh. “Doesn’t stop the girls from confessing to me. I’m just not ready for one at this time. It’s a kind of a scary idea for me, caring about someone else in that way. What if I mess up and hurt them? What then?”

“You’ve really never dated?”

“You?”

“Well, it didn’t last very long… a boy had asked me out and broke up with me in the same day after he walked me home because my father scared him.”

Dante quirked an eyebrow. “Scary father, eh?”

“He’s really quite harmless. Maybe a little too intense sometimes, but he’s just fascinated by… ah.” Mary caught herself.

That would be tacky of herself to blurt about her father’s obsession to Sparda to one of the twins. Yeah, that’s probably a surefire way of losing a friendship not to mention being singled out in school as the weirdo.

“He wouldn’t be the first.”

\--

Contrary to popular rumors, the class president and vice president were certainly NOT making out in the student council room. They were sitting at opposite ends of the table with the rest of the student council clearly weirded out by the sitting arrangements.

There was a debate about decorating the classroom for school spirit week and there was a lot of argument regarding haunted house and fancy cafe before Aikaterine tiredly suggested that they combine the two. That suddenly silenced the argument as they looked at her in surprise.

“We’ve been going in circles about this. Just keep it simple…” She groaned.

“That means you’re going to have to wear a maid costume too.” The secretary pointed out.

“Shit.”

The room suddenly went quiet again.

“...if I have to, I’ll do it. Who’s going to get the costumes?”

“I can! My mom owns a costume shop! I’ll have them all prepared for the spirit week!”

“Good, that’s one down.” Vergil said. “What are we serving at the cafe?”

“Tea and cookies!”

The rest of the student council got busy planning the tiniest details of the cafe while Aikaterine wobbled and passed out on the table. Her head made a loud thunk and there was a light snoring sound, leaving everyone speechless.

“...I’m going to say that the meeting is over early. Go home.”

The room emptied while Vergil stared at the unconscious vice president, groaning into his hands. He had no idea what to do at this point.

“Ow, fuck!”

Silence. He stared at her, his mouth slightly opened as she shook herself, having somewhat revived herself without him trying to wake her up. There was a crack in one of the glass lenses.

“Damn it… I’m going to have to get new glasses.”

“For someone who was after me for not taking better care of myself, why are you sleep deprived? And secondly, why do you even wear glasses in the first place? Those aren’t even prescription.”

How did he know? That bastard… she thought to herself as she reached up to remove her glasses and stopped herself.

“I slept in the closet.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yesterday, I ran into something that made me fear for my life so I slept in the closet with my shotgun.”

“...you have a shotgun.”

“Yes.”

“If you’re still afraid, maybe I should walk you home.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“With what? Are you going to throw your glasses at someone?”

She made an “eurgh” sound, pushing herself out of her seat, muttering about how the conversation was getting ridiculous and she should just leave already. Vergil had followed her out of the classroom, still serious about walking her home. She whirled at him and complained that he was going to fuel the rumors and he pointed out that such rumors were meaningless conjecture that shouldn’t concern both of them.

“I can’t afford for any of this to get back to my uncle or he’ll pull me out of school and lock me up until I’m eighteen.”

“Ah.” He wondered if that explained her “resistance” in the first place. “Old fashioned, I take it?”

“This is more of dark ages old fashioned.” She said with a dark look plastered on her face. “Anyways, why are you so concerned for me? I thought you disliked being around people. Oh, right, I forgot you told me that you tolerated me.” 

“That was a poor choice of words.” He began once they left the school building. “According to my twin, what I should have said instead that I like you.”

More silence as she slowly turned her head at him. Her face was registering a mix of confusion and even more confusion with a side of what the fuck did I just hear. She shook her head.

“I’m being serious here. I don’t understand it either, but I seem to feel something significantly different towards you.”

“I see.”

The walk back to her apartment was still full of awkward silence as she didn’t know how to register this new version of confession until finally, she took off the broken glasses. There was a faint smile on her face as she gave a small shrug.

“I suppose I’ve got to let you call me something for a change.”

“What?”

He was momentarily thrown off guard now that he could see how different she looked without those thick glasses in the way. Vergil could’ve sworn she was the same mysterious model … no, it couldn’t be?

The photography shop owner apparently lived in the apartment next door and it seemed to finally register something in his very confused brain. She waved to Aikaterine with a teasing tone in her voice.

“I’ll be sure to keep this a secret!”

“Nanny…”

“Rose Red, I’ll always have your back! Dinner’s in an hour!”

Vergil was rooted to the spot suddenly questioning his life choices that brought him to this moment. Aikaterine took advantage of the moment, whispering in his ear.

“Call me Carina. Good night.”

He barely moved after the door closed and had somehow ended up at home through sheer motivation. Dante couldn’t even get a word out of his brother regarding what had happened at the student council meeting. All he knew was that the bedroom floor was littered with broken pencils again. He was forced to conclude that the meeting must have been pretty stressful to render his twin mute.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Birthdays are such a pain and so are dreams.

_She was wearing a lovely flowing white dress with white lilies in her hair, sitting under a canopy of twinkling stars. Strands of pearls trailing down from her neck, barely dipping into her dress. There was a handsome prince clad in dark finery with light blue trimmings. The next thing she knew, he had her in an embrace and was about to draw her into a deep kiss._

The alarm clock let out a rude shrill buzzing before a fist came darting out from under the heavy comforter and knocked the clock off the nightstand.

“Ah, shit. Not the weekend yet… tomorrow.”

The disheveled young woman slipped out from under the tangle, looking equally tangled herself as if she was fighting something in her dreams. She picked up the alarm clock off the floor, turning it off before returning it to the nightstand.

She had barely gotten her school uniform before hearing an intruder in the kitchen then remembered it was Nanny who decided to cook breakfast having seen how tired Aikaterine was yesterday.

“Morning.”

“Rose Red, didn’t sleep well?”

“No.”

She didn’t even want to get into the details of the dream, barely able to discern the difference between the dream and the waking world. She stuffed a buttered toast in her mouth, mumbling incoherently.

“Are you doing okay with school?”

“Yeah, yeah. My grades are top notch.”

“Friends?”

“Some.”

“What about that guy from the other night?”

“Complicated.”

“It’s clear he has a crush on you.” Nanny put her hands on her hips, standing in front of Aikaterine.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Another toast disappeared in Aikaterine’s mouth. “He’s smart. Kind of stupid with how he pushes his own limit and makes himself weak when trying to be stronger. The groupies annoy me.”

“It shouldn’t be a bad thing to have a boyfriend at your age.”

“Nanny. We know that the minute Uncle finds out, I’m going to be dragged back to Fortuna in an instant.”

“I’ve been working on legal avenues for that. Technically, I’ve been your guardian this whole time…”

A pang touched her heart. This was certainly true, Nanny was the only one who gave a damn about her. Her uncle was largely still punishing her for what her mother did. Her mother didn’t even care about her… a ugly truth she discovered before her exile from her uncle’s house.

“Maybe so. I don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”

“Even at the cost of your heart?”

“I have to think about myself.” She left the table. “I’m off to school, see you later.”

After the door closed, Nanny sighed to herself as she began the clean-up in the kitchen. It wasn’t fair to watch Aikaterine still suffer even after having gotten her off the island. She had hoped to give her a real chance at being a teenager but it seemed that she was still trapped by the rules.

“I have to keep trying.” Nanny spoke out loud to herself. “She can’t be allowed to carry on like this.”

\--

The entire classroom was stunned in silence as students whispered among themselves in confusion. Was the rumor true? The model was actually attending the school? Confusion settled in once they watched her sit in … the vice president’s desk.

Wait, what?

She put on the broken glasses, putting her hair in a half-assed messy bun, resting her chin on her palm. The classroom was still silent as Sam the ResearcherTeacher slammed their lesson plan on the podium.

“Well, that’s that. I’ve got your attention now.”

“What’s with the rumor about a famous model?” Mary whispered to Aikaterine.

“I’m nowhere near famous as it is and it’s just a thing to humor Nanny.”

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

Sam began the painfully awkward lesson plan with charts and graphs. Whenever someone in the class giggled over medical terms, a cheese wheel could be heard hissing. Most of the classroom was mortified because no one expected the hissing cheese wheel or for Sam to appear to be unfazed by the cheese wheel in question.

“And that’s just a preview of things to come for next week when we conclude the lessons…”

Aikaterine groaned and rolled her eyes before resting her head on the desk. The timing was poor as the dream had left her restless. What was with the vivid dreams she was having lately?

“Two years left now…” She whispered under her breath.

\--

Aikaterine didn’t feel too conversational over lunch and Mary had worried that she said something offensive but noticed that her friend looked exhausted. Aikaterine shook her head and said that worrying was unnecessary and asked Mary how the rest of her day went yesterday.

“The theatre club was very … insightful. I didn’t realize Dante was that talented!”

“So, you were hanging out with him then? Surprised he didn’t annoy you too much.”

“Oh, no. He was on his best behavior! We got drinks afterwards and that was it.”

“Didn’t even offer to walk you home?”

“I kind of had to decline because you know, my dad. I don’t want him to get any weird ideas. How was the student council meeting?”

“Spirit week is going to be freaking weird.” Aikaterine groaned. “My fault for having suggested that we combine a haunted house and a fancy cafe.”

“I wonder how that’ll work…”

“Only if the rest of the school wasn’t literally doing haunted houses. Why did it have to be on Halloween week?”

“At the very least we can get creative with the costumes, right?”

“I’m not good at these things, I’ve never had the opportunity to dress up.”

“Then I’m helping you.”

\--

On the rooftop in their spot away from everyone else, the twins were quietly eating their lunches. It was a nice thing being able to get away from the dreaded groupies who were probably raging over the rude surprise sexy vice president.

“Did you know about that?”

“I found out last night when I did a proper confession this time.”

“Before or after you found out that she’s hot?”

“She has always been attractive, you fool!” Vergil snapped.

“I had no idea you were into aggressive sexy librarians.” Dante snorted, ducking a swat from his twin. “Did she reject you again?”

“She gave me a name.”

Dante paused, digesting on that thought and shook his head. “I suppose that’s the best you’ll ever get from her then. You two are just plain impossible, forever dancing around the idea of a relationship.”

“Do you have any better ideas? It’s not like I could ask her out what with those blasted fools around.”

“Hide and serenade at her apartment or something, I don’t know?”

Vergil leaned back against the wall then glanced over at his bookbag, catching sight of his favorite poetry book just barely sticking out. Well, it would seem that a vague notion of an idea had just started forming. Time would only tell if this was a great plan or a stupid one.

\--

Rest of the day went off without a hitch. Someone was really watching out for Sam as they sighed, barely having had to touch the flask all day. Either Sam was gaining incredible restraint for drinking or they actually had forgotten to refill the flask before arriving at school. Sam leaned over to the cheese wheel on the desk.

“Brie, be a dear and fetch me some more alcohol.”

Brie made a chittering sound as Sam placed the flask on top of the cheese who absorbed it into their body and wheeled out of the room, startling several students on their way out.

The teacher went over the next week’s lesson plans on their laptop at the desk. They also pulled up the file to review the data on the robot babies as well selecting the vict-- er, parents. Sam supposed they would have to pair up their best students since they bloody damn well needed to learn how to behave with each other. Still wasn’t sure why they were so tense around each other. Did something happen in the past?

As far as Sam could tell, there hadn’t been anything notable in their research papers that would hint as to why.

“Teacher?”

Sam turned their head at Aikaterine who had come into the classroom. “What is it?”

“Do we really need to do the baby thing?”

“Is there a reason why you can’t?”

“I mean, my uncle might take it the wrong way…”

“Ah, that stupid Dick.”

Aikaterine had a moment of “what” before remembering Sam used to hail from Fortuna too. The teacher just waved their hand, saying that there was no need to worry. Sam would personally write a strong worded letter if ‘Dick’ ever threatened to pull her out of school over an important lesson.

“I have your back on this.”

“Thanks.” Aikaterine said. “Why did you even come up with this lesson plan in the first place?”

“Because I, your homeroom teacher skipped it last year. This year seemed too critical to consider skipping it again.”

“Alright.”

Aikaterine left the room, making her way towards to the gym for the kendo club. Always meeting every friday after school. She wasn’t even a member of the club but had started coming out of obligation for her idiot’s safety. Her idiot? What? Why was she thinking of him in that manner?

The dreams.

Of course she could blame the dreams for that. Her face immediately went dark upon realizing that the groupies were sitting in their usual spot, making obnoxious noises. What was it going to take to get rid of them? There was always the fire alarm but that didn’t seem like a good idea at this point.

Maybe she could use her broken glasses to set something on fire or make a shank.

No.

You’re being silly. She scolded herself. The best thing to do was to get up and leave because she didn’t have time for this foolishness. She stood up from her seat and was about to leave the room until she felt a looming presence at her back.

“Leaving so soon? I thought you were supposed to stand vigil?”

“You have your fans.” She replied, turning around before realizing that she was staring at his bare chest glistening with sweat. Where was the top? “You are missing a critical piece of your uniform.”

“I took it off.”

Aikaterine had no words for Vergil. Happy birthday, here’s your idiot without a shirt. There was a loud cracking sound on the broken lens, shattering even more than yesterday.

“Why.”

This question was both in response to Vergil’s damn near chiseled torso (wait a second how was that even possible at his age) and the fact that he took the top off in the first place.

“I was hot.”

“Yes, you are.” She said without thinking then facepalmed upon seeing his surprised face. “Excuse me, I seem to have lost my brain cells.”

Not too long after, the student council somehow showed up to intimidate the groupies. It seemed there was some kind of shipping war going on in the background. If Aikaterine had known, she would have been embarrassed at the council for starting the rumor in the first place of her having a hot fling with the class president.

That stuff didn’t need to get back to her uncle! Of course there was no fling, such a thing was impossible. But why was he smoldering at her while topless? Her mind was starting to hit overheat panic.

“I should go.”

“Carina, wait!”

Aikaterine took off running at the speed of light or at least the human equivalent of it. She didn’t stop until she got home, clearly out of breath. She was ready to keel over and die from all that running. Staring at the stairs she would have to climb to get to her apartment, she proceeded to keel over.

“Why am I such a moron.” She whispered to herself. “And here I was doing so well denying my feelings.”

She pushed herself up to a sitting position on the first step, still trying to catch her breath. Two years left and still nothing in mind to find a way out of this situation. She would have to keep burying her feelings just to avoid being recalled home to that damned island. There was a little rebellious voice in the back of her head, provoking her to surrender to her feelings.

Surrendering wasn’t an option for her. Her well being came first but her head was so confused regarding the matter. It shouldn’t be a bad thing to just let go all of her stress and worries. Just enjoy the moment.

No, that was too selfish, she forcibly reminded herself. Her mother had done just that and ruined herself to the extent that she was so obsessed with the stranger for years to the point of neglecting Aikaterine’s existence. It was a bitter pill that Aikaterine’s coloring came from the stranger that she had never known, so it was no surprise that her uncle treated her so poorly. Why would she think anyone would ever want someone like her?

Sure, she had the mysterious beauty down, but her eyes were something else. Amber, yellow, light brown, she was never sure because the colors would shift a lot. The orphans used to call her ‘Cat’ because her eyes greatly resembled a cat’s. Being called ‘Kitty Kat’ was annoying as hell because it made her miss the orphans all the more. Although there was something insidious behind that nickname, she couldn’t exactly discern like there was a parallel universe in which she would have to punch the crap out of few dumbasses.

She needed a nap from exerting her body and mind too much today. Maybe she could convince Nanny to delay the birthday dinner by an hour or so. She also felt guilty for never having told any of her schoolmates about it but really, what could she do? Being reminded that there was a countdown to the time she would get yanked out of school and into a new prison wasn’t at all that appealing.

As she finally struggled to make it to her door, a sense of dread hit her. Oh no, what if they planned a surprise birthday party? No, that would be the worst. Not what she needed right now. She unlocked the door and pushed it open, grimacing.

Nothing.

Thank god, she could just go ahead and take that nice long nap now. Aikaterine dumped her school stuff in the living room after closing the door behind her. She proceeded to stagger over to her bedroom, collapsing in her bed to hopefully slip into sweet bliss of sleep.

\--

Elsewhere, the twins were sitting at the dining table, eating with their parents and one Sam the Researcher. The cheese wheel was fast asleep on one of the padded recliners in the living room.

“What’s this I hear about robot babies?” Sparda spoke up.

“Just an education tool for teenagers to understand the joys and pitfalls of child rearing.”

“Fascinating! May I have one?”

“No.” Sam said, adjusting their glasses. “You’ve already managed to get this far with child rearing. Which is a miracle by all its own.”

“I suppose I have the books to thank for that.”

“And hours of sitting in the front yard.” Eva reminded Sparda. “By the way, you might need more time with the teenager books.”

“They… are certainly a unique challenge all of their own.”

“We can hear you, you know.” Vergil scowled. “Don’t talk about us as if we’re not in the same room.”

“By the way, how was the kendo practice today?”

Vergil didn’t know how to answer his mother. He was still concerned by Aikaterine’s odd behavior at the practice. She had been blurting out such things without holding her tongue back like she normally did. Something was bothering her and he would have to find out after dinner.

“It went well.”

“What I heard there was a riot with the student council and the groupies.” Dante said, chuckling.

“...I was preoccupied.”

“Oh? Aikaterine?”

Vergil didn’t answer so Dante let the subject drop. He knew better than to tease his older brother lest he end up being stabbed at the dinner table. Their mom had made that clear, no fighting allowed at the table.

Sam stared at the twins shaking his head. “Whatever it is, you’re going to have to get over this weirdness next week.”

“What?”

“Not telling. I’m done.” Sam got up from the table and thanked Eva for the home cooked meal. The researcher grabbed Brie and left the house for the evening.

“So am I. I’m going out for a little while.” Vergil got up from the table as Dante jumped up and followed after.

“What are you up to?”

“Just an idea, you don’t need to be involved.”

“If you’re going to do something stupid--”

“It’s my problem, not yours.”

Dante watched wordlessly as Vergil tore through the shared closet looking for something, pulling out all black clothing. He couldn’t even tell what his brother was thinking but changing into all black ensemble didn’t make sense.

“Are you planning on breaking into someone’s house?”

“Perish that thought.”

Vergil left the room in an instant and Dante was left in the dust. He wasn’t going to let his brother go like that without finding out what the dumbass was thinking. Following his older twin at a safe distance made sense until he realized that his twin had added finishing touches, running his hand through his white hair, turning it black. Then that bastard had disappeared into the crowd.

“Aw, hell!” Dante grumbled. “That’s a cheap trick, losing me like that…”

Dante was wandering around aimlessly, trying to sense his brother. The trail had started growing cold and he was starting to worry. What if his brother was doing something irresponsible and reckless? Yeah, yeah, everyone thought Vergil was the responsible one but the truth was that while his brother could be cold on the surface, he had strong feelings and was especially prone to making impulsive decisions.

“Hey, Dante!”

Dante’s head turned to see Mary waving at him. “Hey, lady.”

“You shopping too?”

“Eh, I dunno. I was looking for my brother.”

“By the way, did you know today is Aikaterine’s birthday? I was thinking of picking her up something cute to cheer her up.”

“Oh, so that was why she was out of it today?”

“Yeah. There’s a good story behind it, but it’s not mine to tell.”

“No, seriously, though. How did you even figure out her birthday?” Dante said, crossing his arms.

“Oh, when I first met her, she was telling me that she had three years left the other day. Then I heard her saying “two years” today… so I guessed.”

“That sounds kind of ominous.”

Mary grimaced. She didn’t want to betray her friend’s confidence but at the same time, the idea of Aikaterine disappearing from their lives was something she could not accept. Finally, she broke down and blurted out the entire story and Dante seemed especially shocked to hear it. She complained that it shouldn’t be a thing but he also pointed out that there might be some inheritance issues that involved money.

“If that was that, I’d rather my friend be free than trapped!”

“Maybe we can figure out something… or god forbid my brother finds out, he’d do something stupid.”

“Like what?”

“I dunno, Vergil is hard to predict sometimes. I was following him when I lost him. Bastard disguised himself.”

“What if he went to see Aikaterine?”

“I-- Oh. He did take that book with him. BLACKMAIL MATERIAL!” There was an ominous gleam in Dante’s eyes as he took out his phone, setting it up for video. “Vergil may kill me for this but it’s worth it.”

\--

_In the same garden of twinkling stars, she was in a different dress. This time, it was a dress made of varying shades of red. She was curled up in a white hammock, cradling a baby swaddled in a black blanket. She only remembered stroking his delicate chubby cheeks and the soft tuft of white hair. Looked so much like his father, she thought._

Aikaterine suddenly woke up in the darkened bedroom with a start. What was that dream? It felt like she knew the baby’s name but it was stuck on the tip of her tongue. There was a knock on the bedroom door and a gentle voice calling out Rose Red.

“Nanny! Ah! Did I miss the dinner?”

“I haven’t started it yet. Are you okay?”

“Long day at school.”

“Tell me about it at dinner, I think there’s someone outside trying to serenade you.”

“For the love of god. I don’t need this.” Aikaterine quickly changed out of her school uniform, discarding the essentials for her disguise and slipped into a t-shirt with leggings. She raced to the front door, opening it and looked over the railing.

There was a mysterious man dressed all in black with black hair and was that black nail polish? He was reading from a brown book with a golden V embroidered on it. Aikaterine had never seen this man before in her life so she was at a loss for words.

_I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe, That made my love so high and me so low._

“Are you fucking serious.” Aikaterine was in disbelief. “What kind of fool would serenade me with poetry…”

Dante and Mary were behind the bush, stunned by the scene unfolding before them. Dante was trying not to shake too hard with laughter while recording. Mary whispered to him that she would have never thought that was his brother and Dante whispered back that he was full of surprises, alright.

“Carina, would you do the honor of going out with me?”

Aikaterine was about to yell back that she wouldn’t go out with a bloody stranger before stopping and letting her brain cells do all the work. Finally, she made her way down to the ground floor and squinted at the stranger before her.

“Is this some kind of prank?”

“I can assure you that it’s not a prank.” He answered. “Call me V.”

Aikaterine was wondering what kind of gods were out there playing a weird prank on her. What the hell was this day even turning out to be? Her idiot was being a bigger idiot here at this moment.

“No… really.”

“I thought this would be less of an inconvenience for you since you were always uncomfortable with my appearance.”

“Vergil, you bloody idiot!”

He was left at a momentary loss of words before Aikaterine pointed out that he had called her by the only name she gave to Vergil in particular. That voice and disguise wasn’t going to fool her because she knew how he moved at all too well. The real issue at hand was more like she couldn’t be honest with her own feelings without being afraid that she was going to lose her freedom.

“Oh, well, if it’s going to be like that.” Vergil said. “I suppose I could ask you to marry me instead.”

“WHAT?”

And that was when they heard Dante dying from laughing in the bushes. Mary had to rescue the cell phone from Dante’s hands before diving out of the way from the summoned blue swords. What the heck was that?

“CIVILIANS!”

The swords disappeared in an instant before Dante brushed off dirt and extra blood off of his body. “Sorry about that, happy birthday, I guess. You’re now engaged to my brother.”

“But I-- wait, how did you even find out?”

“It’s your birthday?”

Mary sheepishly waved to Aikaterine and scrambled over to dump the present in her hands. “I’m sorry! I figured it out. I hope this gift isn’t too much.”

“Er, thank you.” Aikaterine pulled out a lovely white embroidered book out. “Wow, this is gorgeous.”

“I thought it could be something you could use to write your hopes and dreams. If that’s not too silly.”

“Of course not! Thank you so much, Mary! I think this has to be the best gift I’ve ever gotten… next to the topless incident at kendo practice.”

“TOPLESS?” Dante stared at his brother trying not to double over wheezing with laughter.

“Shut up.” Vergil crossed his arms. “If I had known, I would have gotten you a better gift.”

“Actually about that.” Aikaterine sighed. “It’s okay. I didn’t want to make a big fuss out of my birthday. I’m just glad to have such thoughtful friends and one weird boyfriend, I suppose.”

Now everyone was silent at that before Aikaterine realized what she had blurted out. Her face turned red from embarrassment. “Ah…”


	4. Chapter 4

The class was in considerable pain regarding the latest lesson in Sex Education as given by one very tired teacher. Sam reviewed the birth control methods and had a jar of suspiciously small wrapped squares. Dante tried to steal the jar but got sprayed with the holy water and he yelled at the teacher it wasn’t for him, it was for his twin.

A book went flying across the room and smacked Dante in the back of his head. Dante expected to yell at the vice president, but it was his twin who was more than done with him. Sam only sighed, rolling their eyes and ordered the jar to be returned to the desk and oh for the love of Sparda let them finish teaching the class already.

It was never a dull moment in Sam’s classroom.

Dante sheepishly returned to his desk and dropped the slightly dented textbook on Vergil’s desk. Mary was trying to focus on taking notes when she passed a note along to Aikaterine who deftly opened it. Sam generally ignored it when students were passing notes as long as they were actually keeping up with their assignment.

Aikaterine shook her head at the note and wrote down a response, returning it to Mary. The notes were discussing about the robot baby that they were going to get assigned to at the end of the lesson. She worried about getting paired off with a stranger and wasn’t sure how her parents would react to the assignment.

Sam slammed the lesson plan book shut. “And now the assignments! Remember, no feeding the doll pizza! Please treat the homework like you would treat like a real baby because at the end of the assignment after a week, I’ll be downloading the data from the robot baby. If there is something out of operating parameters, we’ll have a word or twenty.”

No response from the students which Sam took this as a sign of acceptance. The teacher whipped out the printouts, calling out student pairs to get their number slips and the homework would be waiting for them at the end of the day. Everyone seemed to be satisfied with their choice in partners or at least they kept their grumbling to themselves lest they drive their poor teacher to their flask.

Mary knew she needed to make certain that Dante would not think of doing anything insane with their homework but how to explain it to her parents? Her mom would be amused but her dad on the other hand. Yeah, she would have to work out on plan to avoid ever introducing Dante to her parents or her father would be planning their wedding or worse, erect a tower in the middle of nowhere and dress up like a goddamn clown.

If it wasn’t for the events of yesterday, Aikaterine would have been mortified about her partner but she only sighed, already accepting her fate. She needed to have a word with him regarding how they were going to trade off on homework. The call from her uncle this morning spooked her, wondering who he paid to spy on her. Aikaterine said that she chased off the weird poet guy and there was nothing to worry about, she was not going to go back on her word.

What a filthy liar.

The lunch bell rang and just as everyone started breaking up for the usual lunch group, she stood up with her boxed lunch before being yanked out of the room by Vergil. Dante looked at the jar and Sam stared back at the younger twin. “Don’t think about it.”

“But he needs those!”

“I doubt he’s that dumb.”

“Sam, this is the same person who I dared to steal a sip from your flask and passed out.”

The teacher thought about it and sighed, giving Dante the entire goddamn jar of mystery foils. It wouldn’t be until Dante raced to the rooftop entrance that he discovered the foils were actually mints and Sam hid the actual jar elsewhere. The younger twin wasn’t sure what to make of this deception. 

On the rooftop, it turned out that Vergil wanted to discuss the terms of homework as Dante discovered a little later when he slammed the door open yelling. “I’M NOT READY TO BE AN UNCLE YET!”

A book clobbered Dante straight in the face for the second time today. “Are you nuts?!”

“I didn’t know if you were that crazy enough to attempt something so public.” Dante rubbed his jaw from the book, throwing it back at Vergil who easily caught it with his free hand.

“I would not do something so reckless.”

“Says the one who got drunk on the teacher’s alcohol from a sip!”

Aikaterine facepalmed. “Will you two shut up!? My uncle has my apartment staked out right now!”

“He what.”

“I had to deal with a weird phone call this morning. He might be just paying someone off...”

“I will deal with it.”

“You will not!” Aikaterine shook her head. “Thank you, though.”

“Want a mint?” Dante popped a piece in his mouth despite the weird stares from the couple. “Huh, they’re pretty good.”

“...they were only mints?” Vergil asked, confused. “Give me that jar.”

\--

After the jar was rightfully returned to the teacher, there was a moment of an awkward pause before Sam finally asked. “So I’m hoping you stole the jar back from your brother?”

“Yes. Mints?”

“The real jar’s on the desk anyway. Mind your fingers around Brie. Someone poked her earlier with a fork and she’s a little crabby.”

The cheese wheel appeared to be staring up at Vergil and bristled slightly before settling back down on Sam’s desk. Vergil quirked an eyebrow in response and mumbled something about taking that into consideration before making a combination of strangled and dying noises.

“What?”

“How do humans date?”

Sam stared at Vergil for few minutes before slowly face palming. “Please talk to your mother about that. I have no possible experience in that area.”

\--

Rest of the day went off without a hitch before the twins realized that their partners basically ditched them with the robot babies if only because they ran off to explain the homework assignments to their families without running into weird issues. They also discovered an interesting issue regarding the baby that was unfortunately assigned to Vergil. Every time Dante came near, the baby would give off an extremely high pitched shrill crying.

Was this some form of punishment from Sam? It got to the point that by the time they were at home, trying to figure out what it was about Dante that very specifically set off the sound to the point Sam burst into the room, yelling at the twins to stop messing with the homework.

“I think this baby is broken! This thing keeps screaming if I’m too close.”

Sam took a good long look at the baby in question. “I distinctly don’t remember programming that feature. Either case, it’ll keep you on your toes because real babies are supposed to be that unpredictable. You just have to be aware of their basic needs. Did your partners ditch you?”

Dante gave an “eh” shrug before Vergil scoffed. “Carina needed to speak to her uncle.”

“_Excuse me?_”

“His girlfriend.” Dante answered the slightly startled researcher.

Vergil caught himself and blushed at his own foolishness. “Correction, Aikaterine.”

Sam slowly left the room, muttering to themselves in something relatively incomprehensible language that no one could understand. Something about not expecting their plan to succeed before it ever went off. Though, it was a carefully constructed plan to get one of the twins to be a little more social, not suddenly find a girlfriend. Dante briefly congrulated his twin with breaking their teacher before getting his hand swatted away from a failed handshake.

“I suggest you go to the other end of the house so you can stop upsetting my baby.”

“Your baby?”

“HOMEWORK.”

“I think having a girlfriend broke your brains.”

“I’m leaving.”

\--

Sparda found Sam sitting frozen on the couch, barely drinking out of their flask. “What’s the matter?”

“One of your sons has a girlfriend.”

“Oh, that’s normal for Dante.”

“The other one.”

Sparda joined Sam on the couch immediately and it wasn’t too long before Eva showed up with a brief, “oh, for goodness’ sake!” at the fact that there were two very frozen people sitting on the couch questioning their life choices.

“Do I need to know what happened?”

“My dear, it would seem that our son has acquired a girlfriend.”

“How did Vergil manage that?” Eva asked.

“Wait, how did you know that was the right one?”

“Probably because Vergil has been dumping broken pencils in the trash can, dear.”

Sam snorted and drained their flask while Sparda blinked at his wife with a puzzled expression on his face. “That’s a waste of good pencils, why was he breaking them?”

Eva only facepalmed with both hands before sighing. “That’s something you would have to ask him.”

“Oh, okay!”

Perfect timing, because Vergil was stalking across the living room to find a place to get away from his twin before being hastily interrupted by his father who was about to get a word in. Sparda noticed the baby in question and was suddenly fascinated. In an instant, Vergil lost his homework to his father who ran off with such a maniacal glee while being chased by one scientist researcher who was busy yelling SPARDA NO.

“Why.” Vergil groaned, sitting on the couch before Eva offered him a plate of cookies. “Thanks, mother.”

“How was school?”

“Just fine.”

“You know, you can talk to me about anything if there’s something that’s bothering you.”

Vergil thought about that for a few minutes before blurting out, “How do humans date?”

Eva immediately facepalmed again before regaining her composure, “Is something worrying you?”

“She has certain restrictions so I’m trying to figure out how to get around them. But there’s the matter of the homework and we’re partners on this project…”

Meanwhile in the background, Dante was not the only one who suddenly lost his homework to his father and was now a part of the chase. Eva pointedly ignored the chaos while trying to solve Vergil’s dilemma. Brie wheeled past them and out of the open front door.

“What do you mean, certain restrictions?”

Vergil sighed and started into a long winded explanation of the situation. Eva frowned, not at all too pleased by that situation. Finally, she said that all they could do was be creative and make it so that the dates were in a public setting where they could make it look like not-a-date. Meanwhile, there was a loud series of yelling from outside.

“Oh dear, I’m going to have to check on your father.”

They wandered outside to find Sam yelling at the tree, making loud demands for Sparda not to interfere with the twins’ homework assignments and to get his bloody demonic cockroach butt down this very instant or the researcher would personally have to climb up there and spray him with holy water.

“It would seem your father has a case of the baby fever.” Eva sighed. “I better make some preparations.”

“Huh?” Vergil turned to look at his mother who was already retreating into the house, not quite understanding what she was referring to. Dante popped up by Vergil’s side with a bowl of popcorn in his hands.

“It looks like this might take all night.”

“Wh--”

Vergil glared at his twin and returned his attention to the tree in which they were forced to watch Sam’s various attempts at climbing it to spray holy water in various directions. They could hear their father yowling and climbing higher.

“GET BACK HERE, YOU BUGGY DEMON, YOU.”

“Noooooo!”

“...obviously, mother is not going to help solve this problem.” Vergil sighed. “I might as well call Carina.”

“Isn’t that a little soon for her to meet our parents?”

“She’s probably the only one who could talk any sense into anyone.”

“Or unroot the tree and suplex it.”

Vergil paused in the middle of dialing the number on his phone. “Well, yes, that too.”

Not too long after the call, Aikaterine found herself in the weirdest situation of having to find her way to Sparda family house with highly specific directions. She was now standing in between Vergil and Dante, staring at the tree. Dante offered some popcorn but she shook her head, indicating she wasn’t hungry.

“Okay, if I heard you right. Your father is in the tree with our project?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“...why.”

“We don’t know either.” Dante answered through a mouthful of popcorn, ignoring a swat from Vergil who yelled at him to not talk with his mouth full. “He just flipped out and took them with him. Got any ideas on how to get him down from there?”

“This is so stupid.” Aikaterine muttered. “I suppose I’ll have to do something.”

As if she had any idea on how to deal with one very weird person who happened to be at the center of a cult back home. She walked over to the tree, quietly greeting Sam before wondering why the teacher was doing here but shrugged it off. She knocked on the tree, looking up.

“Excuse me, Mister Sparda…?”

“Just Sparda is fine!”

“My name is Aikaterine Fortune. I do believe you are currently holding my homework project hostage?”

“Oh, uhm. Yeah. They’re kind of cute, aren’t they?”

“I would like to not fail school, please.”

“But…”

Sam rolled their eyes. “Good luck.”

Aikaterine frowned at the researcher then called back to the tree, “When can I expect my homework back?”

“I… don’t know?”

“Stop being ridiculous, father. You’re embarrassing me in front of my future wife.”

Sparda fell out of the tree in shock, nearly giving himself a concussion. Aikaterine grabbed the robot baby, checking over to make sure there wasn’t any visible damage. Sam got off the ground only to stare at Vergil, open-mouthed.

“That worked a little too well.”

“Son, I think I went deaf from dying there.” Sparda answered, slightly dazed.

“I’m not repeating myself.” Vergil crossed his arms, looking away while blushing furiously.

At this point, Aikaterine barely registered the declaration because she was too worried about her grades. Sam glanced at her then back over at Vergil before shaking their head in disbelief. Dante stole his project back and fled back into the house and there was a distinct sound of a door slamming somewhere, locking.

“With that in mind. No more interfering with homework!” Sam shook a fist at Sparda.

“But… I liked the idea of holding a baby.”

“That is something you need to talk about with your wife.”

“I… think I’ll go back home.” Aikaterine laughed nervously. “We probably should work out a schedule.”

“Or I could just come over.”

“But… the restrictions!”

Vergil slitted his eyes at his partner. “Do not underestimate me.”

\--

They managed the impossible with Vergil having to sneak into the apartment through the back through a window in his disguise. All because they could deal with the homework with Nanny helplessly in the middle of the chaos as per Aikaterine’s request. Nanny wanted to give suggestions for the two on how to take care of a baby, but instead she opted to be entertained by them freaking out every time a loud cry was uttered.

“Okay, now I think I understand this cry. Definitely stops when we hold him.”

“That does sound considerably different from the noise whenever Dante got too close.”

“Really? Why?”

“I have no idea. Our teacher said that wasn’t programmed in.”

“Huh. Maybe Dante just has poor luck with children in general.”

“That would be unsurprising.”

Nanny chuckled to herself while working on her ideas for next photography projects. She was more than happy to see how well her precious Rose Red was getting along with a boy her age. Just the way things should have been if she had a normal childhood. There was a tender moment in which Nanny wished she had her camera with her because they were holding hands without realizing it.

\--

That was a long week. Mary thought to herself, still yawning. She had tentatively figured out a schedule with Dante with them meeting up after school to deal with their project. Mary was finding herself in a something of a weird quandary, not wanting to talk to her parents about school. No, it was okay to talk to her mom but it felt like it was difficult to do so whenever her dad was hanging around. Something had changed and she couldn’t figure out why.

So she had started to avoid being home too much and hung out with her friends as much as possible if only because she didn’t understand the gnawing dread. It wasn’t something that she noticed in the past if it wasn’t for Aikaterine’s initial reaction and the conversation with Dante. She felt guilty for avoiding her family but at the same time, she needed to understand what the bad feeling was in order to resolve it as quickly as possible.

The project was a welcome distraction for her and it was kind of fun learning how to take care of a baby even if there were some trial and errors with them fumbling and laughing over easy mistakes. If she ever had to take care of a stray child for some reason or other, this would be a great thing to apply in theory. Even if she did note that Dante was having some trouble with the project at times.

“You know, the one that my brother got was super noisy. Whenever I got too close, the doll would just scream.”

“Aww! Were you being mean?”

“Nope, just being myself.”

“That’s pretty sad.”

“Ouch.”

“Things okay at home?” Even Dante had noticed. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with me lately.”

“I… well. I don’t know. Something weird is going on with my dad. I don’t know if it’s just the stress of moving here and getting a new job is doing things to him. It just doesn’t feel okay to stay at home anymore.”

“Hmm. Maybe things will settle down shortly?”

“I hope so. While I wasn’t so hot on the idea of moving away in the first place, I’ve found that I’m really liking it here.” Mary stretched her legs out. “Making friends wasn’t too hard either and I’m thankful for you guys!”

“Just doing my best. Today’s the last day for the project. Want to keep hanging out?”

“Sure. If only because you’re always paying for the drinks.”

“Aw, you’re just freeloading off of my kindness.”

\--

Sam was dealing with the students dropping off their homework and general complaints of noisy babies before they reminded the students that the real thing were just as noisy. Then they had a goddamn reaction upon realizing that spirit week had arrived already and the homeroom quickly descended into chaos with the student council frantically trying to decorate the room. The poor teacher made helpless noises as they tried to download the data from each baby in order to figure out how badly their students performed as “parents”.

The maid costumes arrived and there were some questioning sounds from some of the female students who were trying to figure out what the hell had gone wrong with the order because the outfits were of varying styles: Victorian, French, and dear god the skirt was too damn short on that one. The students quickly grabbed whatever they thought was modest and suitable enough, leaving the unfortunate outfit behind for the vice president who was less than amused.

“Really.” Aikaterine complained. “Must I be stuck with something scandalous?”

“I’ll try to fix it to the best of my ability.” The sheepish student said. “I grabbed the wrong package after I realized that my parents’ shop didn’t order enough.”

There was some considerable fumbling but the students were at least able to length the hem and found a petticoat from the drama department to at least give a better sense of modesty. Mary didn’t think she’d ever seen such unorganized spirit week before but supposed that everyone were more or less running on fumes from the homework.

“...you know, you could have given the maid outfit to Dante.” One student spoke up.

“No.” Another one answered.

“Speaking of which, where are they?” Mary asked.

“Last I saw, they snuck out into the hallway for their costumes.”

Sam suddenly snapped to attention. “_COSTUMES?_” The teacher just finished downloading from the last doll as they went over to Mary and Aikaterine.

“What’s wrong?”

Just at that precise moment, the door opened. A pair of devils were revealed, one red and one blue. Sam was less than amused, a bottle of water already at their side but forced themselves to stay steady because no one needed to know the truth. Someone was holding the goddamn Sparda Family Braincell ™ and it wasn’t either of these two idiots.

“‘Sup.”

The students milled around the twins, impressed with the costumes and how dramatically they were able to alter their voices. It was absurdly clear how “well done” the twins’ costumes were compared to the other students who had opted for the butler outfits. Sam glanced outside the window just in case there was some goddamn creepy looking marble statue walking around in the courtyard.

They had returned their attention to the classroom and noticed Aikaterine was rooted to the spot, stunned. There was a strange expression on her face and Sam had a growing sense of dread. This was certainly an unexpected development if their suspicions were correct.

“Aikaterine?” Sam asked, carefully.

“I want to have his ba--- AAH!”

Sam completely forgot themselves and promptly sprayed Aikaterine with holy water before facepalming, remembering that it didn’t work on humans. She snapped to her senses and ran out of the room with the maid costume with Mary not too far behind. The teacher promptly dragged the twins into the hallway before ordering the class to finish their decorating work.

“Are you two idiots out of your goddamn minds?!”

“But, Sam! You have to admit that it’s an easy costume!”

“I’m forced to concur.”

“We have several complications now.” Sam muttered, rubbing their face. “Number one, you’re going to have to stick to the fact that these are your costumes and not your bloody devil triggers. Number two, I don’t even want to think about this. Number three, I don’t want to think about THAT either. Number four, I’m going to have to get drunk.”

“Are you sure you still have a functioning liver?” Vergil answered.

“If your father hasn’t already replaced it while I was asleep, sure.” Sam said, sarcastically.

Dante thought about that for a moment but Sam ordered the twins back into the room and broke out their flask to drain it. Then pulled out more bottles of holy water as if they were preparing for some unseen war. Even Brie rolled up to Sam’s side, equipped with a bottle of holy water.

\--

“Oh my god, what did you do?” Aikaterine blurted out upon seeing her reflection in the mirror. “I don’t look like myself!”

“It’s okay to look a little different, it’s Halloween after all.” Mary said. “I’m sure no one would make the connection.”

“Well. That’s a decent excuse.” She pouted at her reflection, having been dolled up and looking like some sort of sultry temptress. 

If she didn’t know any better she swore she heard pencils snap somewhere in the distant future. Aikaterine braced herself to ignore any odd reactions thrown in her direction once she returned to the room. The outfit was more body hugging than she thought but she would endure, damn it.

The pair returned to the classroom and neither of them understood why the stressed out teacher was sitting in the hallway with the spray bottles or why the cheese wheel had legs and was similarly armed. Sam only gave them brief greeting while staring dead ahead with precision laser focus. Then at the last minute, the teacher handed Mary a spare spray bottle before mumbling something about keeping an eye out for unusual activity.

“What would be unusual?” Mary asked.

“I’m surprised at how much you’ve missed.” Sam answered. “But that’s probably for the best.”

“What is the teacher talking about?”

“Beats me.”

The entire room went quiet upon the return of their vice president who ordered them to get back to work already and stop bothering the twins over their ‘costumes’. Some of the theatre students grumbled because they wanted to know how to construct glowing lines in costume and how to apply voice changers. Mary looked at Dante, slightly puzzled.

“I didn’t know you had something like this.”

“Oh, uh, it’s just a little ol’ thing I’ve had this entire time.”

“It is really impressive.”

A pencil snapped and Vergil quietly cursed under his breath. He didn’t know if it was because of his clumsy grip or because the vice president was staring at him. It was so hard to look at her in the eyes because he was in his other form and how snug the maid outfit was on her frame.

“Having grip trouble?”

“If only because I am rather unused to trying to write like this. I’ll have to think of some other way to write down orders.”

“Maybe I could help you with that.”

“You’re not scared of me like this?”

“How could I?” Aikaterine replied. “You’re you, no matter what you look like.”

He blushed furiously as someone remarked a little too loudly that they didn’t know the costumes could blush to the point Vergil wound up hiding his face in a notebook, making dying noises as Aikaterine looked on and sighed.

Rest of the day consisted of considerable gawking from visiting students who were impressed with the cafe theme and some gossiping about the costumes not to mention the cute maids. Sam, the researcher teacher returned to the classroom, still staring out of the window as if they were looking for anything out of place. Finally, they had a reason to be concerned.

A marble statue attempted an invasion of the classroom at one point before being chased out by the angry teacher wielding water spray bottles. Someone assumed it was a homeless man before being told that no homeless person would have elaborate costume too. It was probably someone who got lost on the way to a party. Dante made a mental note to ask his father some awkward questions later.

Overall, the student council declared the cafe a success as Mary sat down, rubbing her ankle. “The servers really do a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever stood around for such a long time.”

“It is pretty hard.” Aikaterine nodded. “Still, I’m glad this went off so well.”

“You totally ignored all the boys throwing their phone numbers at you.”

“There were phone numbers?”

“Y-you didn’t notice?”

“No.”

Speaking of the phone numbers, Mary could’ve sworn there was a pile of them and realized that the numbers wound up crumpled in the trash can thanks to one very irate student council president. That went without speaking, she shook her head and looked around for Dante who disappeared along with his twin.

“Where did they go?”

“I imagine they had to change.” Aikaterine grumbled. “What were they thinking?”

“Were their costumes too much for the cafe? I thought they were good!”

“Sup.” Dante had appeared at Mary’s side, giving Aikaterine a much needed reprieve from even having to explain anything at all. “You’re pretty cute like that!”

“Thanks. Your costume was pretty hot stuff.”

“Haha, you could say that.”

Aikaterine slowly facepalmed. “I’m just going to go over the accounting stuff and what-not with the council.”

“How did you even bring the costume to school?”

“Oh, uh, I’ve always had it on me.”

Mary wrinkled her nose, trying to figure out the logistics of one very silly twin carrying a costume around all day. She didn’t recall Dante ever having a suitcase with him and the school lockers weren’t large enough to stuff such elaborate costumes in. Maybe the Sparda twins really had different lockers from everyone else? She was starting to get a headache from thinking too much.

“Anyways, you want to grab something after school?”

“Nah, I think I should go straight home for a change. My parents are probably wondering why I’m avoiding them so much.”

“Alright, if you say so. Offer still stands.”

\--

After seeing her friends off, Mary was ready to hit the sack. Homework could wait after a well-deserved nap. No wonder why the student council was so much work as indicated by today’s chaos. She frowned as she walked closer to her house, the front door open.

“Mom…? Dad?” She called out. “This is like, weird, you guys.”

She dropped her bag on the couch, kicking off her shoes as she kept calling out for her parents. There was an odd smell coming from the kitchen. Something metallic? Not normal, she decided when she picked up her pace, running to the kitchen. A sob caught in her throat the minute she discovered a bloody streak trailing out the back door.

“...Mom.”

Her socks were sticky and soaked in a blood puddle that she hadn’t realized she was standing in. Where did that come from? Her mind was racing through all possible worst case scenarios.

“No. Please, no.”


	5. Chapter 5

Mary was shivering in her seat in the waiting room, quietly being comforted by her friends. It was still a shock to her, finding her mother bleeding out on the floor and if it hadn’t been for her coming home right away, things would have ended differently.

She barely remembered grabbing the towel to staunch the bleeding while calling 911 in a panic. Everything was in a blind haze afterwards, the flurry of paramedics on the scene and being questioned by the police. Her father was still missing and all she could remember was giving out the numbers for her emergency contact (friends) so they were called.

“Hey, lady. It’ll be okay. You saved your mom’s life.” Dante said, his arm around her shoulders. “Just remember that.”

She sobbed quietly, unable to form any words. Aikaterine told them that she was going to fetch some water and walked away. Mary didn’t know how she was going to be able to stay at home all by herself what with her mom in the hospital and her father missing. The hospital might not let her stay the night.

“If you need to let it out, it’s okay to scream and hit me.”

“B-b-but, it’s not even your fault.”

“I can take the abuse.”

Mary sniffled and weakly slugged Dante in his arm. “No. I can’t. Just hold me, please.”

“‘Kay.” He shifted so she could slip into his embrace as Dante rocked her back and forth gently. Her erratic breathing had started to steady.

Aikaterine returned with water bottles. “Sounds like she’s drifting off.”

“Pretty close to it. Did you sense anything from the house?”

There was a powerful impression of evil that imprinted itself at the scene but it was rather an odd reading she got from the kitchen. As if there were three different people at once, two humans and one… not. Whatever was there, it felt the same as the time she met Mary’s father. 

“Something isn’t adding up.” She said quietly. “I think there may have been a demon there.”

“Hmm. Once we get her settled somewhere safe, I’ll check it out myself.”

“My apartment should be okay.”

“What, you got it warded against various evils and such?”

Aikaterine rolled her eyes. “Not a witch. Besides, if it was warded, how the hell was your brother able to climb into through the window anyway?”

Dante almost burst out laughing but he restrained himself, not wanting to wake up Mary. The mental image of Vergil awkwardly scaling the back stairs just to climb into a window was too much for him to endure in silence. He finally let out a small giggle.

“Excuse me?”

They both snapped to attention as Mary rubbed her eyes. “Yes?”

“Mary, it seems that the surgery was successful. Your mom is now in recovery.”

“Oh, thank goodness. Can I see her now?”

“Yes, but she’s unconscious right now.”

“Okay. That’s fine. I just want to see her… I’ll be back, guys!” Mary waved off as she followed the doctor out of the waiting room.

The door opened to the recovery room, her mother was lying down, heavily bandaged, with an iv in her arm. She was unconscious just as the doctor had pointed out. Still, it felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from Mary’s heart. She took a seat next to her mom’s bed, slipping her hand in her mom’s.

“I’m so glad you’re still here. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I lost you. Mom…”

There was a small sniffle as she wiped away a tear.

“Dad’s still missing. I would like to stay with you as long as I can, but I don’t know if the hospital will allow that. So I might have to stay with friends… I just want you to know that I’ll be okay.”

\--

“Alright, Vergil and I are going to check out the house once it’s clear.” 

“I don’t know what you guys think you’ll find.” Aikaterine said, arms crossed. “All I could sense was something something something clowns.”

“I get the sense you don’t like clowns, much.”

“What gave it away.”

“The way you went all stiff and tense just now.”

“I was being sarcastic! Look, keep me in the loop. I’ll just make sure Mary is okay, even if I’m just an ordinary human compared to you two.”

There were policemen heading towards the room where Mary had headed off towards as the teenagers looked on, puzzled. Not too long after, Mary finally returned to her friends, looking a little calmer now.

“They said they were going to have someone watch over my mom. They think my dad got hurt but haven’t been able to find him yet. Oh, it’s my fault for not spending enough time with them.”

“Hey, hey.” Dante grabbed Mary by her shoulders. “Don’t blame yourself for this. The best thing you can do for them is to keep your chin up and stay strong.”

“Besides, would you be okay with staying at my apartment for a little while? I have some clothes you could borrow.”

“Thanks, Aikaterine. Dante.”

\--

“Having a sleep-over?” Nanny asked in the middle of slicing vegetables.

“Something like that. A bad thing happened so Mary’s staying for a little while. Even uncle can’t complain about that.”

“Bad? How?”

“Her mom was attacked by something. Ah, don’t look at me like that, Nanny. I’ve got the shotgun in the closet.”

Nanny relaxed, aware that Aikaterine was right. Thanks to the intense instruction that she gave with using the shotgun as an effective weapon, with or without ammo, Aikaterine quickly mastered the weapon. Even to the point she could switch hands with the weapon and had learned how to shoot with her left in case something happened to her right hand. When Nanny had asked about the odd idea, her young charge only mumbled an answer about precautions and dreams.

“I’ll have to put the police on speed dial if something happens.”

“I’m not sure they could handle a demon.” Aikaterine answered flatly to Nanny’s visible shock.

“Demons in Redgrave too?”

A blank stare from the young charge who pointed out that the Spardas lived in Redgrave before Nanny interrupted that she knew the distinction between devils and demons. Mary was in the living room, checking out the books on the shelves. Several volumes of fairy tales by various authors, some full sketch books hastily shoved into the shelves, various reference books. Mary pulled out a sketch book and flipped to a page.

There was a crude sketch of what seemed to be a tower and handwritten text underneath it, asking what was the tower and why was the artist dreaming about it? Going up the tower in some kind of confrontation with a child strapped to the chest. Mary decided that it was probably one of Aikaterine’s story ideas that she was tossing around. She closed the sketchbook, replacing it on the shelf.

Aikaterine brought some tea into the living room, placing them on the small coffee table. “This should help calm your nerves some. Nanny’s blend.”

“Thanks. I didn’t know you drew too.”

“I’m not that good.”

“Still, more than I can do.”

“Probably a given since there’s not much anyone can do when cooped up in a cottage…” She murmured quietly to herself. “Dinner should be ready shortly.”

“Thanks for everything you’re doing.”

“You’re my friend, Mary. I can’t leave you in the lurch like this.”

\--

The twins were wandering around the house, being careful not to leave any trace evidence behind. The younger was especially amazed with how they were able to teleport in earlier with the oldest one mumbling about needing to practice the technique because climbing in through a window was a bloody nuisance. Short distances were only doable at this point in time and it still wore him out just from attempting.

“Ugh. It really stinks in here. The cleaners are going to have a rough time with this.”

“It does smell like decay mixed in with blood. Some kind of unsettling feeling here?”

“Dude probably didn’t stick around.”

“I believe you’re right about that.”

They followed the trail out of the house, having found little else of evidence. Not like there was any secret rooms or whatever containing creepy rantings of someone sick in the head. Or occult books. No, the house was normal and perfect. That in itself would indicate something was deeply wrong but neither of the twins could find any evidence to suggest otherwise.

The decaying scent was still lingering in the night air as they followed the trail. The blood evidence had long since faded thanks to passage of time and activity. They stopped in front of what appeared to be a park near a playground area. If it wasn’t for their exceptionally sharp sight, a normal person would have never noticed a hand sticking out from under a bush. The twins rushed over, revealing Arkham’s unconscious body.

He was barely alive, his chest looking as if someone or something had forced its way out not too long ago. Vergil stepped back and pulled out his phone to call for emergency services while Dante pointed out that they’d get weird questions about their weapons. The oldest reminded the younger that they could excuse it as theatre practice when they discovered the man.

Dante was still bent over Arkham when his eyes flew open, grabbing the lapels of Dante’s red coat. “Mary! Mary! Save her! The monster is free…”

He fell back to unconsciousness as Dante glanced to his brother who seemed puzzled as well as he was. It was clear Arkham had used up the last of his energy to utter a warning of sorts. What kind of monster was he talking about? Dante thought back to the conversation with Aikaterine.

“Say, did your girlfriend ever mention anything about clowns?”

“Ah, just that something happened once to make her sleep in the closet with a shotgun.”

Dante stared at Vergil for a moment before shaking his head and muttering under his breath about his brother’s taste in girls before Vergil hung up to yell at Dante. They were both speechless as to their next move, they couldn’t leave before the paramedics arrived but the warning had them unnerved.

“Excuse me, where is Mary exactly?”

“At your girlfriend’s place.”

“What.”

\--

Mary was dozing on the couch after the girls had finished their dinner. Aikaterine was busy washing the dishes in the sink, still in deep thought. As she placed the pieces in the drying rack one a time, she couldn’t help but worry about the sensation she felt back at the house when coming to Mary’s rescue. The ringtone from her cell phone interrupted her thoughts as she picked up her phone, wandering near the stove to check on the kettle for more tea.

“Hello?”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine, why?”

“We found Mary’s father, barely alive. We suspect the monster may be after her.”

“I’ve got a shotgun, Vergil.”

“Carina…”

“I’ll be fine--” Her head snapped up. “Actually, you may want to come right now.”

She put down her phone without hanging up, tiptoeing to the closet to grab the shotgun. Aikaterine immediately loaded up the ammo as she strained her ears to listen further. There was a rather distinct scratching sound but the presence was strong. She silently moved towards the front door, with a firm grip on the weapon. It was her security blanket… abilet more deadly. She cocked the gun quickly and took a quick look through the peephole.

Nothing?

No, that wasn’t right. The presence was at the door but it moved so quickly that she didn’t feel the movement until it was too late. There was a loud gasping sound of someone being violently roused from sleep. Aikaterine barged into the living room with the shotgun leveled at the shadowy presence, strangling Mary.

Bang.

She fired the shotgun, the scattershot burying into the shadow. The thing shrieked loudly, dropping Mary and cowered before Aikaterine. Mary started coughing and gagging, rubbing her neck before running over to her friend’s side. Aikaterine cocked the shotgun again, firing at the presence.

“Get the hell out of here, you bloody asshole!”

The thing dodged? No, she was certain she had hit the damn thing! Whatever, it wasn’t bleeding at all, instead a white face formed out of the blackness with a long nose that bobbed sideways.

“Naughty missy! Did no one ever tell you not to play with guns? They’re so dangerous!”

As if that would stop her from unloading the ammo into the bastard with few flavored swearing, “AHHHFUCKFUCKDIEDIEDIE”. Mary scrambled to grab the nearest weapon she could find which was a butcher knife and tried to stab the shadow clown with it.

“Nu-uh! That won’t work either!”

“Holy shit, what the fuck is this thing. IT JUST WON’T DIE!” Aikaterine was about to shoot again until she realized that she was out of ammo. Shit.

Aikaterine got thrown out of the apartment, losing her grip on her gun. Her back bashed against the railing and her eyes rolled up, losing consciousness from the pain. Mary cried out her friend’s name but she quickly shut up once she realized that she had the monster’s attention who sneered at her.

“The tower’s not ready yet… you’ll be a good little girl for me, won’t you?”

Mary made a frustrated noise. There wasn’t anything she could do at the moment, nothing would even affect the clown before her. Couldn’t even get by the clown to check on her friend. Was she going to die here?

“No, no. Too early, yet! I’ll let you keep breathing, but your friend here? She’s dangerous.”

“You talk too much.” Dante stumbled over to Mary’s side, panting. “Holy shit, I see why my brother decided to learn how to teleport out of spite.”

“This won’t do, too crowded! I must skedaddle--”

“Hey, you. Come back here!” Dante yelled, chasing after the clown with Mary not too far behind.

The clown thing ran out of the front door and appeared to be puzzled by the lack of a body at the railing before he realized the girl was standing off to the side. There was a certain kind of dark look on her face with blood trickling down her temple as she quietly uttered one word, “_Burn._”

The clown shrieked as flames exploded all over the surface of its body, flailing and trying to put the flames out in vain. She kept following the screaming burning mess, her yellow eyes fixed on the horror. Finally, it fell off the last steps, sprawling all over the ground, a gloopy smoky mess. She was panting from the energy used up during that focus, eyesight blurring. She saw a familiar figure approach her and Aikaterine felt her body relax, going limp into her boyfriend’s arms.

Mary put her hands on her hips. “Well, Dante. Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Um. A clown caught on fire?”

“Yes, I can see that! That… thing just absorbed bullets and I couldn’t stab him with the knife.”

“Jeez. I wonder if I could have stabbed him easily enough with Rebellion… Wait.” Dante thought for a second, slightly regretting that slip.

“Oh? What’s special about that sword? It’s not a theatre prop either!”

“It… really isn’t. I guess I’m going to have to tell you everything. Starting from the beginning, I guess. I’m Dante, and I’m a half demon.”

Mary barely blinked, swearing that she misheard that. “Come again?”

“I’m a half demon. My dad is a weird giant cockroach looking demon who fell in love with a beautiful human woman and … we exist.”

“I’m going to get a drink. The tea probably went cold.”

“...Lady.” Dante slammed a hand on his face, following Mary inside the apartment. “You’re having trouble processing this. I mean, I can understand what with your mom having been attacked, your father being barely alive and now this burning clown mess.”

Vergil had already teleported inside with Aikaterine in his arms as he scowled at the mess, reminding himself that he would have to clean it up after she was properly tended to. He only shot Dante what could be considered a Vergil-esque dirty look that normally would include a blue summoned sword. However, Dante ignored the glare because he was too busy making noises of disbelief at Mary.

“What do you mean? My father’s barely alive?”

“We found him in the park and had to wait for the paramedics to arrive before we could get here. I’m honestly glad you guys are okay.”

“I’m just trying to keep it all together.” Mary was trying her best not to let her legs drop out from under her. “Dante, if you’re really a half demon or whatever. The only thing I want to know is, can you really fight those kind of things like that?”

“Huh? Yeah, that’s normally no big deal for us.”

“Teach me.”


End file.
